Category Archives: North Korean Refugees
Korean Food Booth Helps Raise Funds
Korean Food Booth
Global Festival Japan was held at Tokyo’s Hibiya Park on Oct. 1st and 2nd, 2011. Festival sponsors included a number of Japanese government organizations, The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, and The National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan. Every year, more than 200 groups involved in a variety of issues join the Festival. Typically, these groups deal with human rights matters, child labor abuse, and poverty problems.
International Conference Gets Tough on NK
On Sept. 8, some 40 human rights groups from 15 nations gathered in Tokyo to set up a nongovernmental organization called “The International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity In North Korea” (ICNK). Four of LFNKR’s directors attended the conference.
One LFNKR Aid Center Closed Down
“I can no longer help defectors,” Mr. Kim told me.
For the past three years, he has worked with us, continually facing danger and difficulty as he has aided defectors. He is the person running JSH-01, one of five shelters situated along the Sino-Korean border. Recently, he has grown increasingly anxious as Chinese public safety and border defense units toughened their crackdown even further.
NK Refugees Get Japanese Language Training center
Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR) on June 29, 2011, opened Japan’s first Japanese Language Education Center for North Korean Immigrants. This has long been one of LFNKR’s dreams.
The first class includes seven North Korean students, with ages ranging from 35 to 62, and averaging 48 years old. Directors of the Center include Kato Hiroshi, executive director of LFNKR, plus a second director, and Tomoharu Ebihara, executive director of ARNKA (Association for the Rescue of North Korea Abductees, Chiangmai), who was instrumental in establishment of the Center.
Food Prices Rising in North Korea
Current Prices in DPRK
Price research conducted by Life Funds for North Korean Refugees
Surveyed: Morning of June 12, 2011
Data Released: 13th June
Research in Onsong and Chonjin North Hamgyong Province
Food Price List for DPRK
Young NK Refugees Thriving in Japan
Excelling in Japanese Language Studies
On February 15, LFNKR members were excited to hear that Hyun Ki* and Ae Sook* had received high level certificates in the national Japanese language certification exam, which they took back in December. Both are 26-year-old former North Korean refugees, and both reached Japan 3 years ago with the help of LFNKR.
11-Year-Old Former Refugee Plays Chopin
Entire Family Succeeding
One of LFNKR’s directors is Dr. W, a Zainichi (ethnic Korean resident of Japan). Recently he was invited to visit a former North Korean refugee family. They are the first family that LFNKR ever helped resettle in Japan. When they reached safety in Japan 11 years ago, their daughter was only one year old. In the intervening years, Dr. W has witnessed this family’s hardship and their difficulties securing work in Japan.